Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: I'd imagine probably a reduced focus on pacifism, but other than that who can say?

Zigzagdoublezee: I like both Tenzin and Jinora a lot, and as you say I think they both have perfectly understandable motivations. The problem is, those motivations are in conflict with one another.

As Always, Please Review!

Asami

Asami was in her office, poring over blueprints with some of Future Industries' most senior engineers when the message came through for her.

A table had been set up in the centre of the room, and a huge piece of paper was spread across it, with a cutaway image of the torpedo that was proving so troublesome for her.

One of her engineers, a woman called Emiko, was in the process of explaining to her the merits of designing an entirely new gyroscope from scratch to stop the weapon going in circles when the telephone rang.

Emiko stopped talking immediately.

"Sorry about this," Asami replied. "People do pick their moments, I'm afraid."

She crossed to the phone and held the speaker and receiver up to her head.

"Hello?"

"Asami Sato? Boss of Future Industries?"

"Speaking."

"This is Republic City Prison," a voice came from the other end. Asami's eyes widened.

"The prison? What do you want?"

"What I want doesn't come in to it. I have been ordered to pass on a message."

Asami didn't like the lip on this prison worker, but she supposed they were quite bored, and she didn't think of herself as the type of person to make a fuss about it.

"Go on then?"

"Your father wishes to see you."

And then there was a click. The phone went dead.

Asami nearly dropped it in shock. Her father had previously tolerated her visits at best, hadn't he? He believed she had betrayed him, and betrayed his cause. So why was he suddenly so eager to speak to her, seemingly out of the blue?"

The engineers registered the look on her face.

"Do you need a moment?" Emiko asked.

"Meeting adjourned," Asami rushed for the door. "Good meeting everyone, keep doing what you're doing!"

Asami glanced up into the sky as she drove towards the prison. She remembered the last time she had come here, she had seen an airbender wheeling through the sky on their bison. This time, the shapes she saw were altogether noisier. An exercise for the United Republic Air Force was taking place, and so the sky was filled with the drone of flying machines. It was a far cry from the lone bison.

Come to think of it, Asami had heard that a new Marshal of the Air Force had just been appointed in preparation for potential hostilities. The appointment hadn't been officially announced yet, but apparently Tenzin was not happy about it.

She pushed the thoughts away. Politics was the least of her concerns at the moment. The prison loomed in front of her, and the Satomobile screeched to a halt in front of it. She jumped out, and raced into the reception, met by the guards who just waved her through.

For once, Hiroshi was waiting for her when she entered the meeting room, though he was pointedly staring away from her, up at the ceiling.

"Hello father," Asami said as she walked up. "I hear you want to see me."

There was no reply. Hiroshi looked like he was steeling himself for something.

"Unless they were mistaken? I did think it was weird that you got to arrange the meeting for once."

Still nothing.

"My work is going fine, thanks for asking."

Asami felt her patience wear thin as her father still refused to even look at her.

"Do you know why I dropped everything to come here?" She asked. "I thought- I thought that after everything, there was a chance I might get my father back. I can see now that I was mistaken."

She got up and turned to leave, and then Hiroshi spoke.

"Don't go," he said.

"Pardon?" Asami swivelled back.

"I said don't go!"

"Alright," Asami sat down. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I don't mean from this room," Hiroshi scowled. "But that too. I mean to war! Don't go to war!"

"Is that what this is about? You know I have to." Asami told him firmly.

"I've been a fool!" Hiroshi now looked like he was chewing on thistles, but spat the words out anyway.

"Go on..."

"I- I don't want to lose you, Asami. You're the last family I have."

"Not that I'm complaining, but this is a change of tune."

"After you told me you were going to fight Kuvira, I had a think," he said. "And I came to a few realisations."

"Just a few?"

"I'm trying to apologise here," Hiroshi pointed out. Asami fell silent.

"I realised that I had been putting a man who's been dead for three years ahead of you, my only family. That I'd been letting you drift away, and I'm already hugely lucky that you've kept bothering to try with me. If you hadn't, I'd have no family left. I wouldn't have anything left."

Hiroshi said that last part quietly, sadly. Asami stood up, suddenly unsure what to feel. She jabbed a finger at him.

"So that's it? Three years of treating me like a traitor, and then suddenly you like me again and expect me to forget it?"

"No!" Hiroshi said. "I'm not naive. The scars of all of this are not going to be solved in two minutes flat. I'm just getting it off my chest."

He reached into his pocket.

"Besides, deeds are better than words. I know we can't go back to the way we were, and maybe I can't even convince you not to risk your life. But I can help you."

He drew something out and handed it to her. Asami looked down, and didn't know whether to be disappointed or not.

"A napkin."

"Open it?" Hiroshi prompted.

Asami did, and suddenly realised that she was holding the most valuable napkin in the Republic- maybe even on the entire continent. It contained a reasonably detailed drawing of a cylinder filled with labelled parts.

"It has been three years, and this is from memory, so it's not perfect," Hiroshi warned, "but here it is. As well as I can remember, the blueprints for the Equalist torpedoes."

"Thank you," Asami smiled at him. "Why the change of heart?"

"I'm not doing it for the Republic," Hiroshi said. "But if you're going to go to war, actually go, then I'd much prefer it if you went with weapons that actually worked."

"That's harsh," Asami said. "They worked!"

"Occasionally," Hiroshi added. "Just... come back and visit me, will you? And come back alive."

Asami reached across the table to pat his hand.

"I will dad," she said. "I'll have a lot of very powerful friends looking out for me."

"Suddenly I'm glad you've got so close to the Avatar," Hiroshi replied.

"As am I," Asami replied wistfully. Hiroshi gave her a look of surprise, which became a rather smug, knowing expression, and then he composed himself instantly.

"Anyway," he said. "I've said my piece. I love you, Asami. I don't expect you to forgive me, but it's true."

"I know," Asami replied.

"Haven't you got work to be doing?" He said. "Time's marching, and your torpedoes won't build themselves."

"Right!" Asami stood up.

"Goodbye dad," she said. "This time next week?"

"Of course."

Asami turned and walked away, feeling the napkin in her pocket. She wasn't sure what to make of Hiroshi's sudden apparent change of heart, but it was progress at least.

Now to get back to Future Industries. There was a lot of work to do.